“Ah, I’m going to be honest and say that you’re doing the opposite so far. Tony asked what I wanted for breakfast and I told him a noose in the size of your neck. He was all ‘we can’t kill the pest yet, but when we do, you get first shot.’”
“I hope you’re an awful shot.”
He swivels in his chair toward me, which just jerks my arm to the side. “I’m actually amazing.”
“Great,” I say sarcastically. It is a bit worrisome.
“Just like everything else.”
“You’re not amazing at everything.”
“I’m also amazing at pretending I’m not amazing, that’s how amazing I am.”
“Oh, fuck off. Watch your porn.”
He grins as he turns back to his computer and I find myself watching him. Shepherd has a heart and a brain. And sometimes, those two things can be a bigger weapon than anything in a time like this.
I just have to learn how to wield them.
Seven
“I’m bored,” I say as I stare at Shepherd while he reads a book. It’s the third night since I tried making a run for it, and thankfully, Tony has left me alone.
“You’re bored? I’ve basically been converted into a glorified babysitter, and you’re the bored one? Do something fun again, like try to run away or saw your arm off with the handcuffs.”
We’ve been sitting in Shepherd’s room for about an hour at the little table he has set in the corner. While he’s read a book, I’ve stared at him reading a book because all of the other books in the room are “too mature” for me according to his lying ass. I’m just convinced he gets off on me suffering.
I let out a loud sigh of annoyance as I flop my body onto the rickety table and wallow around. That’s when my eyes lock on to a pack of playing cards on top of a book. “I see some cards over there. Want to play a game?”
He glances at them. “With you?”
“Yes.”
“Eh. I’m gonna be honest, I was excited until I heard who’d be playing with me,” Shepherd says, grin cocky, and I wonder when I became close enough to him that he stopped being closed off with me like when I first arrived.
“I liked you better when you were a normal asshole. You’ve kind of turned into a cocky asshole, and if I’m being honest, it’s kind of ugly on you. What if we play for something? Let’s say… for your bed?” I say.
The idea of trying to make me lose must sound horribly tempting to him because he looks excited. “Alright. You have to just sit there and look pretty without saying a word for the rest of the night if I win, then.”
“Deal,” I say. “I’ll even let you pick the game.”
“Perfect,” he says as he evenly deals out the cards.
“What are we playing?”
“Old Maid.”
“Wait… what?” I ask, extremely suspicious. “Seriously? Are we five?”
“Yep,” he says as he starts laying his pairs down. “Maid is a joker.”
I sort my cards and hold my hand out to him to draw from. I don’t have the maid card, so it’s clear he has it. As I reach for a card from his hand he pulls it back. “Not that one.”
“Why?” I ask.
He’s smiling far too mischievously as he tries to direct me away from the card. “You don’t want it.”
Of course that makes me want it even more. “I do too want it,” I say as I reach for the same card.
“Grab a different card,” he says as he pushes one up higher, like he wants me to take that one. “Any card.” As I reach, he tries getting me to take the one he’s pushed up.
I snatch the first one I’d been aiming for only to find out that it was the freaking maid. “You’re evil.”
“I am?” His eyes get wide. “Because I told you not to grab the maid? I was literally trying to help you. I even insisted on it.”
“Yeah, because you knew I wouldn’t listen to you!”
He’s holding his cards over his face, so when he lowers them and shows me his shit-eating grin, I glare at him. “What? You refusing to listen to me? No!”
“Cute,” I say as I try to force the maid back on him, but he grabs a different card and the game continues. Even by the time I’m down to four cards, he still hasn’t grabbed the maid.